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enZoom Q1 sees rocketing revenue as adoption soars, but what now?https://diginomica.com/zoom-q1-sees-rocketing-revenue-adoption-soars-what-now
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Zoom Q1 sees rocketing revenue as adoption soars, but what now?</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/pwainewright" class="username">Phil Wainewright</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Thu, 06/04/2020 - 01:27</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/zoom-q1-sees-rocketing-revenue-adoption-soars-what-now" data-a2a-title="Zoom Q1 sees rocketing revenue as adoption soars, but what now?"><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
The videoconferencing star of the lockdown has had a blockbuster quarter despite some missteps, but can Zoom keep the momentum going?<br />
</dd>
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<figcaption>(Pixabay)</figcaption>
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<p>Video conferencing platform Zoom reported a blockbuster Q1 this week as it revealed the financial impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on its business. Zoom has become a byword for video chat among people isolated by stay-at-home orders, sparking a surge in adoption. Revenue for the quarter was $382 million, up 169% on the same quarter a year ago, while customer growth almost tripled. Zoom expects the good times to continue through the year, almost doubling its revenue guidance this fiscal year from $910 million to $1.79 billion.</p>
<p>CEO Eric Yuan was also contrite for the company's errors when <a href="https://diginomica.com/wfh-darling-zoom-security-and-privacy-disaster-let-me-count-ways">various security flaws came to light</a> as Zoom use rocketed among individual consumers. "As a CEO, I think I should have done a better job," he admitted. "We should have played a role of IT for those first time users." But <a href="https://www.techmeme.com/200603/p2#a200603p2">Zoom is attracting new criticism</a> for Yuan's revelation on the call that users will have to pay for the end-to-end encryption (E2E) feature currently under development after <a href="https://www.itsecuritynews.info/zoom-acquires-keybase-plans-for-end-to-end-encrypted-chats/">its recent acquisition of Keybase</a>. His framing that this would not be available to free users because "we also want to work together with FBI and local law enforcement, in case some people use Zoom for bad purpose" was not well chosen in the current civil climate.</p>
<p>The company also revealed that the much-vaunted figure of 300 million daily participants (not daily users, as originally reported) that it reached in April was a high-water mark, with a slightly lower average recorded in May (though still massively up on the figure of 10 million in December). Meanwhile, although the quarter was profitable on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis, the surge in usage led to a significant spike in infrastructure costs, pushing gross margin below 70% compared to 81% a year ago and 84% in the prior quarter.</p>
<h2>Zoom Q1 revenue and customer growth</h2>
<p>Does all this mean Zoom's sudden rise has peaked? More thoughts on that below. First, a summary of the numbers:</p>
<ul>
<li>Total Q1 revenue was $328.2 million, up 169% on the same quarter a year ago.</li>
<li>GAAP net income was $27.0 million, or $0.09 per share, compared to $0.2 million, or $0.00 per share a year ago. The non-GAAP equivalent was $58.3 million, or $0.20 per share, up from $8.9 million and $0.03 per share a year ago.</li>
<li>Cash holdings at the end of the quarter totaled $1.1 billion.</li>
<li>Q2 guidance sees revenue just shy of $500.0 million, with non-GAAP income from operations expected to be around $132 million.</li>
<li>Fiscal 2021 guidance sees total revenue just shy of $1.800 billion, equivalent to around 187% growth for the year, and almost double the guidance given in the earnings call just three months earlier.</li>
</ul>
<p>Reflecting Zoom's continued focus on the business market, the company quoted customer numbers for organizations with more than 10 employees, and those spending over $100,000 a year:</p>
<ul>
<li>500 customers were signed in Q1 on contracts for more than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue.</li>
<li>Zoom now has 769 customers who spent more than $100,000 on its services in the past 12 months, an increase of 128 over the prior quarter and 10 times more than in the same quarter a year ago.</li>
<li>It now has 265,400 customers with more than 10 employees, an increase of 183,000 over the prior quarter and 206,000 more (up 354%) from a year ago. Continuing behavior that's been consistent over the past two years, this cohort increased their spend more than 130% on average over the year.</li>
<li>New customers accounted for 71% of revenue growth during the quarter, with the remainder coming from subscriptions added by existing customers.</li>
</ul>
<p>Examples of new customers included a banking firm that deployed around 175,000 new Zoom seats in the quarter, global law firm Baker McKenzie, and Arm Technology, which deployed 9,000 Zoom Phones, the cloud-based voice service Zoom is keen to push to its enterprise customers, alongside 8,000 Zoom Meeting licenses and 800 Zoom Rooms.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the biggest growth was among individuals and smaller organizations with fewer than 10 employees, which accounted for 30% of revenue during the quarter, compared to a 20% share in the previous quarter. This also changed the billing mix, as these customers typically pay monthly rather than signing up for annual contracts.</p>
<h2>Cautious guidance as crisis recedes</h2>
<p>Although larger customers continued to sign longer-lasting contracts, that shift in balance towards shorter terms leaves Zoom cautious in its guidance for the rest of the year. CFO Kelly Steckelberg said it's not expecting either of the remaining quarters to exceed Q2 in revenue:</p>
<blockquote><p>As governments start to ease shelter-in-place restrictions, we may see a moderation of demand for our services. Given our assumptions on higher churn rate as well as economic uncertainty, we are projecting Q3 and Q4 revenue to be relatively consistent with Q2.</p></blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile, infrastructure costs are expected to subside as Zoom moves more volume back into its own datacenters and out of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Zoom had scrambled to scale its server capacity as consumption surged twentyfold from an annualized rate of 100 billion meeting minutes at the end of January 2020 to over 2 trillion in April. It turned to AWS to provision extra servers, "sometimes adding several thousands a day for several days in a row," says Yuan, and also "provisioned a number of servers in the Oracle Cloud". As Oracle had previously revealed, this was <a href="https://diginomica.com/zoom-turns-oracle-cloud-support-it-hits-300-million-daily-users">the equivalent of more than seven petabytes of capacity</a> going through OCI. But Yuan said he doesn't regret that extra expense:</p>
<blockquote><p>During this pandemic crisis, our top priority is to show our corporate social responsibility. Essentially, we do all we can to have people stay connected.</p></blockquote>
<p>Despite its experience of the past few months, Zoom is sticking to its focus on larger enterprise customers as its major growth opportunity. Yuan reiterated his belief in extending into cloud-based PBX with the Zoom Phone service as a significant opportunity, building on the success of the video conferencing service. He cited a large global pharmaceutical company, already a heavy user of Zoom video conferencing, which deployed Zoom Phone to around 18,000 seats in Q1, the company's largest phone deal to date.</p>
<p>Zoom's strategy, he emphasized, is to be the go-to provider of video and voice for business customers. The company is happy to leave other aspects of digital teamwork — such as messaging and content sharing — to other best-of-breed partners that it integrates with, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Box and Dropbox. It's betting on a best-of-breed strategy, he says:</p>
<blockquote><p>I truly believe the best-of-breed service provider will survive and thrive, because customers — when it comes to video and voice, you've got to make it work anytime, everywhere, any device. It's not that easy.</p></blockquote>
<h2>My take</h2>
<p>Zoom has paid a high price for becoming a verb. There's been the reputational cost as a vast army of new users encountered the consequences of lax security. The damage to Zoom's brand won't have been helped by Yuan's throwaway comment yesterday about wanting security services to be able to view private conversations on free accounts. Then there's been the heavy expense of ramping up infrastructure to ensure Zoom remained available as adoption soared, though at least that has delivered a positive brand experience with an even wider reach than the security gaffes.</p>
<p>But Zoom probably isn't going to worry about the dip in usage going into May, which may in part reflect the reputational hit but more likely is the result of competitive action by Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others. I suspect Zoom is somewhat grateful to see those other vendors wade in and scoop up some of the volume demand for social videoconferencing and thereby relieve the load on its servers. The consumer market is not where its destiny lies.</p>
<p>The important question for Zoom is to what extent it can sustain and grow its presence in enterprise accounts, which is where there's even more money to be made. To have gone from fewer than a hundred $100k+ accounts in April last year to nearly 800 this year is a remarkable achievement in itself, but what will be even more interesting will be to see how that number grows in subsequent quarters as revenue builds from its most recent signings.</p>
<p>The best-of-breed strategy is a crucial element in supporting that growth. I've already noted elsewhere that <a href="https://diginomica.com/lot-more-remote-digital-teamwork-video-meetings">there's a lot more to remote working than video chats alone</a>. Zoom's tight integration with other best-of-breed vendors in the digital teamwork space gives it a significant competitive advantage as enterprises begin to grasp the importance of tying online meeting platforms into those other services. If Yuan is able to also make progress with Zoom's IP-based telephony ambitions on the back of its success in video, it has a lot of headroom to continue its growth. But while the most recent quarter has boosted Zoom's trajectory, there's still a long and uncertain road ahead. It must now hold onto its gains, hold its nerve, and continue to build its enterprise presence.</p>
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<p class="field field--name-field-image-credit field--type-string field--label-inline">
<em>Image credit - Pixabay </em>
</p>
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<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/tags/coronavirus" hreflang="en">Coronavirus</a></div>
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<span class="categories__label">Read more on: </span> <ul class="categories__list">
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/hcm-hr-future-work/future-of-work" hreflang="en">Future of work</a></li>
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/collaboration" hreflang="en">Collaboration sharing and digital productivity</a></li>
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Thu, 04 Jun 2020 08:27:56 +0000Phil Wainewright22310 at https://diginomica.comWork From Home - providing enterprise features, security to network connectionshttps://diginomica.com/work-home-providing-enterprise-features-security-network-connections
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Work From Home - providing enterprise features, security to network connections</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/kmarko" class="username">Kurt Marko</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Thu, 06/04/2020 - 00:46</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/work-home-providing-enterprise-features-security-network-connections" data-a2a-title="Work From Home - providing enterprise features, security to network connections"><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
As WFH becomes the norm, drilling down on emerging technology to deliver enterprise-class network performance and security to remote workers.
</dd>
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<p>As individuals and IT organizations learn from experience and adapt to new remote working conditions, the mounting consequences of closed offices span both work and home life.</p>
<p>Early in the pandemic-caused lockdown, <a href="https://diginomica.com/coronavirus-exploding-remote-workforce-heres-how-it-should-prepare">I discussed tactical challenges</a> to making remote work productive and secure and how IT should react to such a rapid change. In <a href="https://diginomica.com/if-work-home-here-stay-what-are-implications-individuals-and-companies">my most recent column</a>, I detailed the interest in permanent work-from-home (WFH) status by a majority of surveyed employees and the implications on recruiting, salary, HR policies and choice of domicile.</p>
<p>Now that we are three months into the WFH experience and video conferences have morphed from being an exciting novelty to an annoying nuisance, it’s time to consider more strategic, long-term changes to enterprise infrastructure and operations to accommodate a permanent class of highly distributed workers.</p>
<p>As I <a href="https://diginomica.com/coronavirus-exploding-remote-workforce-heres-how-it-should-prepare">mentioned early on</a>, most of the WFH challenges facing IT arise from the need to redesign services built for an office-bound workforce to accommodate a WFH environment. The change in physical location means that the most-affected IT capabilities are network services since these are built upon the physical interconnect between workers and their employer.</p>
<p>Initially, WFH accommodations were reactionary, such as providing additional capacity for VPN, VDI and digital communication platforms. However, these necessary bandaids don’t address fundamental gaps in network performance, manageability and security between a home broadband link and an on-premises Wi-Fi connection. An emerging collection of technologies dubbed SASE (Secure Access Service Edge or “sassy”) is the most promising option for delivering enterprise network service and security to remote employees.</p>
<h2><b>SD-WAN meets virtual network security</b></h2>
<p>SD-WAN has been one of the hottest product segments for networking vendors, leading to a race by large, integrated IT vendors to acquire SD-WAN products and expertise from the smaller specialty companies that pioneered the technology. <a href="https://diginomica.com/intelligent-network-services-threaten-carrier-cash-cows">SD-WAN was initially used to replace expensive circuits from traditional carriers used to link central sites with branch offices</a>, remote facilities and retail locations with cheaper, more widely available broadband and cellular service. Several companies have recently extended the technology to accommodate branch offices and WFH situations via software-based products that are suitable for endpoint appliances or individual laptops. However, once you have deployed an SD-WAN software network overlay to optimize routing paths and bandwidth usage, it’s easy enough to add other software-based network services and, presto, you have SASE.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.isacybersecurity.com/what-is-sase-and-why-does-gartner-feel-it-is-the-next-big-thing/">The acronym minters at Gartner are generally blamed for coining the term SASE</a>, which <a href="https://blogs.gartner.com/andrew-lerner/2019/12/23/say-hello-sase-secure-access-service-edge/">it naturally describes via an amalgam</a> of other inscrutable acronyms (that I will unravel below):</p>
<blockquote><p><i>SASE combines network security functions (such as SWG, CASB, FWaaS and ZTNA), with WAN capabilities (i.e., SDWAN) to support the dynamic secure access needs of organizations. These capabilities are delivered primarily aaS and based upon the identity of the entity, real time context and security/compliance policies.</i></p>
</blockquote>
<p>As mentioned, SASE starts with SD-WAN, namely a secure, encrypted software network overlay that works atop any physical network technology to control traffic routing, prioritization and security and can dynamically adapt to changing conditions on one or more physical circuits, like cable broadband and telco DSL, that make up a logical SD-WAN connection. By encrypting all virtual connections, SD-WANs effectively creates a smart VPN.</p>
<p>To that, SASE adds various virtual (software-defined) security services:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>SWG: </b> <a href="https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/what-is-secure-web-gateway">Secure Web Gateway</a> that mediates web connections to provide content filtering and malware inspection, enforce enterprise access and content policies and detailed web usage data.</li>
<li><b>CASB: </b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_access_security_broker">Cloud Access Security Broker</a> to provide central management of an organization’s security policies, including user and device authentication, SSO, encryption and malware prevention, for its entire fleet of cloud services.</li>
<li><b>FWaaS: </b><a href="https://www.catonetworks.com/glossary-use-cases/firewall-as-a-service-fwaas/">Firewall-as-a-service</a> that replaces the traditional network appliance with a virtual next-generation (L3-7) firewall that is inserted in a software-defined network like an SD-WAN and that can be deployed at any point on the network, such as the branch office or WFH edge or even a client device.</li>
<li><b>ZTNA: </b><a href="https://www.zscaler.com/blogs/corporate/ztna-technologies-what-they-are-why-now-and-how-choose">Zero-trust network access</a> replaces traditional moat-and-castle network based security controls such as those extended remotely via a VPN with granular encrypted, authenticated access to all IT resources, regardless of the source. For more details on and an example of zero-trust, see <a href="https://diginomica.com/google-services-are-built-containers-now-its-sharing-expertise-securing-them">my recent column</a> describing its application to container infrastructure. </li>
</ul>
<p>In sum, SASE unites software-based network and security features in a single product or service.</p>
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<figcaption>(SASE conceptual model. Source: Gartner
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<h2><b>SASE at home</b></h2>
<p>Traditional methods of securing remote network access via VPNs to a central data center have become problematic now that enterprises rely on an array of cloud infrastructure (IaaS) and application (SaaS) products. Wide-scale adoption of WFH has further broken the <a href="https://go.forrester.com/what-it-means/ep62-zen-zero-trust/">moat-and-castle security model</a> demarcating networks into secure and insecure zones since workers must access applications and data hosted on both internal systems and by third-party service providers.</p>
<p>WFH has also spread an organization's edge locations across a wider geographic area. Thus, traditional hub-and-spoke SD-WAN deployments between edge locations and a central office or data center are no longer viable. Instead, SASE products are typically delivered as cloud services.</p>
<p>Describing the SASE “market” is premature since the concept and technology are nascent and dynamic. Indeed, <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/why-cisos-need-cloud-to-secure-the-network/">Gartner estimates</a> that the adoption rate for SASE products “is as low as 1 percent.” I can only find a handful of vendors with products or services that meet the criteria described.</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Aryaka </b>doesn’t use the SASE label, but its portfolio of services built on an extensible <a href="https://www.aryaka.com/smart-services-platform/">Smart Services Platform</a> covers most of the bases, namely SD-WAN via a cloud service, connectivity using globally-distributed POP on-ramps, security add-ons and central management.</li>
<li><b>Cato Networks</b><b> </b>Is a cloud-hosted SD-WAN service, Cato Cloud, that like Aryaka added several security services to its base network-optimization product. Cato most directly embraces Gartner’s SASE acronym soup for its next-generation firewall, Web gateway, managed IPS and anti malware security modules.</li>
<li><b>Silver Peak and Zscaler</b>: Silver Peak is an SD-WAN pioneer, with products tailored to both enterprises and service providers, that partners with Zscaler to deliver cloud-hosted security services. The <a href="https://www.silver-peak.com/resource-center/solution-briefs/secure-wan-access-with-silver-peak-and-zscaler">SASE-like system</a> is assembled from Silver Peak’s Unity Edge Connect and Orchestrator SD-WAN products and Zscaler’s Cloud Security Platform.</li>
<li><b>Versa Networks </b>hasn’t officially announced a SASE product, but has teased its interest in a <a href="https://www.versa-networks.com/blog/how-sassy-is-your-sd-wan-winning-the-next-wan-edge-cycle/">blog post</a> and is expected to introduce a software-based product that extends its existing FlexVNF and TItan SD-WAN products.</li>
</ul>
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<figcaption>(Source: Aryaka)</figcaption>
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<h2><b>My take</b></h2>
<p>SASE is just a new label for a trend that has already been underway. I agree with one Aryaka’s Paul Liesenberg who <a href="https://www.aryaka.com/blog/sd-wan-services-for-post-covid-future/">wrote in a blog</a> that (<b><i>emphasis added</i></b>):</p>
<blockquote><p><i>SASE puts a label on something that was clearly already in flow. So, </i><b><i>while some out there already claim SASE leadership, it’s important to establish that no company delivers on all SASE vision elements yet</i></b><i>. Also, we shall learn lessons as we move towards that goal of a seamlessly orchestrated, cloud-first network and full-security stack. </i><b><i>The architectural model will evolve as we learn those lessons collectively as an industry.</i></b></p>
</blockquote>
<p>SD-WAN is a mature technology that is evolving by adding higher-level network services, software appliances suitable for any endpoint and managed cloud core services with globally distributed POPs. While the combination of SD-WAN and cloud security services started in the last year or two, as Liesenberg notes, current products fall far short of the SASE ideal of a tightly integrated system delivered by a single service provider. <a href="https://blogs.gartner.com/andrew-lerner/2019/12/23/say-hello-sase-secure-access-service-edge/">Gartner’s lead network analyst, Andrew Learner cautioned</a> potential SASE buyers about vendors overselling their capabilities when introducing the concept (<b><i>emphasis added</i></b>):</p>
<blockquote><p><b><i>Be wary of vendors that propose to deliver services by linking a large number of features via VM service chaining</i></b><i>, especially when the products come from a number of acquisitions or partnerships. </i><b><i>This approach may speed time to market but will result in inconsistent services, poor manageability and high latency</i></b><i>.</i></p>
</blockquote>
<p>While SASE currently entails cobbling together SD-WAN and security, the situation should rapidly improve now that broad WFH adoption has significantly expanded the need for secure edge networking at virtually every organization. Interest in hosted SD-WAN will explode once more IT and executive leaders hear stories, like <a href="https://www.versa-networks.com/my-wfh-story-with-versa-secure-sd-wan-part-3/">this one from Versa</a>, about users that experienced no degradation in network service when working remotely. Adding cloud-based security services is just the cherry on top of a superb WFH network environment.</p>
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<p class="field field--name-field-image-credit field--type-string field--label-inline">
<em>Image credit - Pixabay</em>
</p>
<div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline">
<div class="field__label">Tags</div>
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<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/tags/coronavirus" hreflang="en">Coronavirus</a></div>
<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/tags/covid-19" hreflang="en">COVID-19</a></div>
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<div class="field field--name-field-category node__categories categories">
<span class="categories__label">Read more on: </span> <ul class="categories__list">
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/hcm-hr-future-work/future-of-work" hreflang="en">Future of work</a></li>
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/cloud-platforms/infrastructure" hreflang="en">Infrastructure</a></li>
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Thu, 04 Jun 2020 07:46:07 +0000Kurt Marko22309 at https://diginomica.comServiceNow’s Chief Talent Officer on bringing a compassion equation to the enterprise in a COVID-19 worldhttps://diginomica.com/servicenows-chief-talent-officer-bringing-compassion-equation-enterprise-covid-19-world
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">ServiceNow’s Chief Talent Officer on bringing a compassion equation to the enterprise in a COVID-19 world</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/ddpreez" class="username">Derek du Preez</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Wed, 06/03/2020 - 08:50</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/servicenows-chief-talent-officer-bringing-compassion-equation-enterprise-covid-19-world" data-a2a-title="ServiceNow’s Chief Talent Officer on bringing a compassion equation to the enterprise in a COVID-19 world"><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
Pat Wadors is thinking about what it means for ServiceNow to have a healthy, digital, distributed workforce. <br />
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<img alt="Image of Pat Wadors, Chief Talent Officer at ServiceNow" src="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_desktop/public/images/2020-06/3FB96796-AE18-497C-8471-BDAB30D9A87F.jpeg?itok=5zB6S67H" />
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<p dir="ltr">The last time I spoke with Pat Wadors was at ServiceNow's Knowledge event in Orlando last year. <a href="https://diginomica.com/knowledge19-servicenows-chief-talent-officer-talks-diversity-inclusion-and-why-making-people">We had a very thoughtful discussion</a> on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the enterprise - and more importantly, why making people feel uncomfortable is sometimes a good thing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Fast forward a year or so and not many could have truly anticipated how the world would change, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This week I got the chance to sit down with Wadors again during ServiceNow's Knowledge event - although this time the event and conversation are both carried out digitally.</p>
<p dir="ltr">For access to the online Knowledge 2020 event, <a href="https://knowledge.servicenow.com/?campid=25683&cid=ps:blogpostk20:diginomica:all:emea">follow this link for a full agenda</a> of sessions. And for diginomica's ongoing coverage of the event, take a look at our dedicated <a href="https://diginomica.com/virtual-event/knowledge-2020">Knowledge 2020 resource hub here</a>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As a Chief Talent Officer, Wadors is in a perfect position to share insights into how the ongoing impact of COVID-19 may affect the changing nature of employee engagement and organisational structures.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Some points that Wadors was particularly keen to highlight include - enabling managers to effectively lead with a digital, distributed workforce; leading with compassion; and rethinking productivity measures.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But first, Wadors said that during this unprecedented time she and her peers have been leaning on each other to discuss constructive routes forward for employees and to think about the enterprise of the future. She said:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">[COVID-19] is giving cause for me and my peers to come together and actually collaborate and share ideas more urgently than ever before. There's less competing on the war on talent and more collaborating for the care of talent. It's opening practices, points of view, people are coming to the table like never before. I think in the past, people were ashamed and anxious and overwhelmed when they had to furlough or layoff talent.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And so they don't talk about it. Now my peers and I are coming together and saying, how can we help bridge the care of those employees? Help them find a job quicker, better, faster.</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">For example, Wadors said that her and her peers are having discussions around how companies can get in front of the decision to reduce the size of the workforce and connect them to employers that are hiring, which could take advantage of that talent.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In addition to this, the talent leaders and managers are thinking through how to manage the knowledge in an organisation to enable people to work from anywhere, to be safe while they work, and thinking about creating safe workspaces for people that do eventually return to the office. Wadors said:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">What does that all mean? We have an immediate need to communicate, to automate, to make sure the right information is in the right hands at the right time to keep us safe and efficient.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 dir="ltr">Thinking through the challenges</h2>
<p dir="ltr">It's clear that the future enterprises that succeed will be more digital and more distributed - much more so than before the Coronavirus pandemic took hold. Wadors anticipates that at ServiceNow as much as 60% of employees will work outside the office, from wherever they please. That's up from approximately 20/25% previously. This has an impact. She said:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">I think we've removed the stigma of working anywhere. You don't judge people any longer, I'd hope, for working anywhere. You judge them on their output. You judge them on their communication and how they collaborate. It changes performance management. It will change how we look at empowering you, onboarding you, caring for you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">Wadors said that this holds a number of advantages for companies from a competitive standpoint, which may now feel more comfortable hiring employees and talent no matter where they are based. However, she adds that this could also give underrepresented parts of the workforce - such as women - a better opportunity to earn an income from home, with flexibility. Wadors said:</p>
<blockquote><p>Think about people working anywhere within their communities. That's a big deal. I can get more diverse talent, I can create better economic opportunities for more people around the globe by giving them more freedom. We're going to change our job descriptions. We're going to continue to remind managers that you've already been leading a distributed workforce, let's do it more with grace and intent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">However, this change in the structure of organisations does present new challenges and requires new ways of thinking. For example, Wadors said that companies need to ‘pulse' their employees more frequently to see how they're doing, what they like, what's working, and what isn't. She said "if you haven't' started listening, listen".</p>
<p dir="ltr">But in addition to this, organisations need to be thinking through how they enable managers to lead effectively within these new digital structures. Wadors explained:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">It's engaging, training, teaching, guiding and modelling for managers and leaders. What does it mean to lead in a healthy way with digital work and a distributed workforce?</p>
<p dir="ltr">[You've got to] empower managers, especially frontline managers, to give them more confidence in hiring digitally. If I've never met you, I can still get a vibe of who you are on video. I can see your smile. I can see your engagement. I actually know more about you by talking with you in your kitchen and in my kitchen. I can learn a lot by being invited into your home. And so I need to teach managers and leaders to really appreciate that nuance and lean into it. Give them the confidence.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Also, show them how to run a staff meeting in a digital way that lets every voice be heard and know when there's fatigue, given the freedom from working anywhere. Teaching managers to allow for flexibility in scheduling is also a big deal. And resiliency, especially during the pandemic, is needed to be taught. How do you practice gratitude? It makes conversations more personal and for many managers that's uncomfortable. But it's needed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, and what is critical to all of this, is that the enterprise needs to rethink how it measures productivity. So much of ‘productivity' in the past has been based on being ‘present'. Wadors joked that someone's measure of productivity in the past was frequently based on how long their car was in the office car park and the hours they put in. This has to change. She said:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">I think how people measure productivity [is going to be interesting]. How do you gauge it? Is it always on Slack? How quick they respond to an email? Micromanagement is not the answer.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We've got to have much better discipline around goal setting and measure people on their results. Not on the hours. I worry about burnout, setting the right boundaries and helping them be more efficient.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 dir="ltr">Empathy + Action</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Related to all of the above, and most importantly, Wadors spoke about the need to bring compassion to the enterprise. She said that some of the things she is currently worrying about, but doesn't have the answers to, are situations that involve an inequity in household work. For example, both partners working but also managing childcare or have elderly care responsibilities - and then having to work around a ‘traditional' work timetable.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Again, Wadors said that it is up to managers and leaders to work directly with employees to help solve these situations. Peoples' home lives are nuanced and companies need to understand that there is not a one size fits all approach. She said:</p>
<blockquote><p>There's not an easy answer. I wish I had better answers for that. You need empathy, but what you really need is compassion - which is empathy plus action. It's feeling someone's pain, knowing that they're going through some wonky times, and then helping them problem solve, together - that's compassion. You've got to actually help problem solve together as a collaborative community.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 dir="ltr">My take</h2>
<p dir="ltr">These sorts of conversations are my favourite to have, as they speak to the core of any company's greatest asset - it's people. And it's very promising to me that the conversations we are now having don't just involve how to make people as productive as possible, on as little money as possible. But they speak to our complex situations and human nature. We should all learn how to lead with more compassion.</p>
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<p class="field field--name-field-disclosure field--type-string-long field--label-inline">
<em>Disclosure - ServiceNow is a diginomica premier partner at time of writing. </em>
</p>
<div class="field field--name-field-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline">
<div class="field__label">Tags</div>
<div class="field__items">
<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/tags/coronavirus" hreflang="en">Coronavirus</a></div>
<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/tags/covid-19" hreflang="en">COVID-19</a></div>
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<div class="field field--name-field-category node__categories categories">
<span class="categories__label">Read more on: </span> <ul class="categories__list">
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/hcm-hr-future-work" hreflang="en">HCM and the digital future of work</a></li>
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/hcm-hr-future-work/future-of-work" hreflang="en">Future of work</a></li>
</ul>
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<div class="field field--name-field-virtual-event field--type-entity-reference field--label-inline">
<div class="field__label">Related to the virtual event</div>
<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/virtual-event/knowledge-2020" hreflang="en">Knowledge 2020</a></div>
</div>
Wed, 03 Jun 2020 15:50:09 +0000Derek du Preez22305 at https://diginomica.comCOVID-19 and changed organizational IT priorities - three CIOs explain how their companies tech teams have respondedhttps://diginomica.com/covid-19-and-changed-organizational-it-priorities-three-cios-explain-how-their-companies-tech-teams
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">COVID-19 and changed organizational IT priorities - three CIOs explain how their companies tech teams have responded</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/slauchlan" class="username">Stuart Lauchlan</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Tue, 06/02/2020 - 04:45</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/covid-19-and-changed-organizational-it-priorities-three-cios-explain-how-their-companies-tech-teams" data-a2a-title="COVID-19 and changed organizational IT priorities - three CIOs explain how their companies tech teams have responded"><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
IT teams have had to respond rapidly to the organizational demands of the COVID-19 crisis - three perspectives from three business CIOs.
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<p>If you would have told me several months ago that COVID-19 was going to be the new champion of accelerating the digital agenda, I'd think you crazy, but today that's the reality.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So says Paul Chapman, CIO at cloud collaboration firm Box, looking back at the past few months and how he and his tech team have been called upon to respond to the global pandemic. It’s been a time of learnings, he adds, for some organizations more than others: </p>
<blockquote><p>The key thing is that I've seen a lot of organizations or spoken to a lot of organisations that are somewhat nervous. They've not grown up in what you would call a ‘work from anywhere’ style and some organizations are struggling with transition over others. You can't speed up the culture of an organization. You can roll out technology maybe faster. The pace is interesting…You have to be careful about speed over perfection. Speed is one thing, but you have to make sure that you don't introduce any security risks, so it's sort of combining those two things together I think is extremely important at this time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Box is fortune to have been ‘born in the cloud’, he adds, growing up a digital company:</p>
<blockquote><p>Our ethos has always been that our services don't discriminate between any single location. We're a distributed organization globally, but work is more of a state of mind, not a place. So culturally we were tuned to working in a sort of any place, anywhere, any time way. So the actual shift to working remote from a technology standpoint was not such a big one. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>That’s not to say there haven’t been challenges, he admits: </p>
<blockquote><p>We needed to make sure we had a little bit more of a distributed VPN and a couple of things around the network edge, and some third party service providers, but in the most part we shifted to working remotely very seamlessly. Of course we saw all platforms that support communication and exchange go through a dramatic increase in usage, whether that's video chat, collaboration and so on. It's been quite fascinating to see the metrics of usage. At Box, where we can see the movement of content all over the world, millions and millions and millions of files, we can actually see the changing pattern of the work day, a lot of very interesting data that that's emerging. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Security paradigm</h2>
<p>An uptick in attempted hostile security activity has also been a concern that has had to be tackled head-on and has led to some altered priorities, he adds:</p>
<blockquote><p>We have seen a significant uptick in COVID-19 malware attacks, using bogus news articles, malicious emails, fake real time COVID-19 update maps, all these types of things. Bad actors are trying to figure out ways to go after vulnerabilities, so we keep very close attention on the numbers and the metrics of what's going on underneath the covers. We're looking at accelerating and bringing forward some things in and around some security areas and some some areas around our user experience and things like that.</p>
<p>From an actual Corporate Services standpoint, obviously now we're looking more at services that integrate with video, with chat services, whether that's remote collaboration software for white-boarding, developing code, things like that, looking at things that integrate with services like video, to do translation or transcripts of conversations, things that are going to integrate with these services now which we're living by. Anything that provides a service to support the communication fabric of the organisation, like video, chat, content collaboration and so on, those are the areas we're going to go after.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Cyber-security <em>is</em> “the new working paradigm”, agrees Michael Santiago CIO /VP IT, Cytiva, (formerly part of GE Healthcare Life Sciences), a global provider of technologies and services that advance and accelerate the development and manufacture of therapeutics:</p>
<blockquote><p>For sure, the attack surface for a potential attacker is definitely increased, tenfold, a hundredfold. It now extends beyond the office, beyond the manufacturing plant and into the home office. Security awareness and security vigilance is of utmost importance now. Social engineering is on the rise and getting worse and cyber state attacks are on the rise as well.</p>
<p>We have regular security awareness training that goes out to all associates. It's part of our credit crisis management plan. We also have, on our intranet, security awareness bulletins. People on a daily basis make sure that cyber-security is part of their daily life. We do daily scanning of all of our endpoints. We have incident response teams that are global and ready to respond whenever necessary. But most vulnerabilities are due to humans and not necessarily intentional or malicious, just someone clicking on the wrong thing at the wrong time. So security awareness is really important and something that we are really emphasising.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Cytiva, the timing of the crisis has been such that it came just as the firm was purchased by Danaher Corporation, a move that had already triggered tech changes:</p>
<blockquote><p>We've had to transition over 40 sites globally from GE to Danaher. Obviously that includes a lot of equipment, not only infrastructure equipment, but also end user devices, PCs that are localized, regionalized for particular geographies, mobile devices, routers, switches etc. All of that is impacted by supply chain, by our vendors, and even our vendors vendors. And you know, we're not the only company that's that's out trying to buy in 10,000 PCs. Everyone else is also trying to stock up and the demand for them is quite overwhelming. </p>
<p>So we've been very flexible and agile in how we transition these sites. Obviously these sites are all over the globe and they have their own shelter in place guidelines from their own local governments, so we've had to adjust accordingly. When can we travel? Can we travel even to do discovery work to identify what's needed to do the transition? So it's been quite overwhelming. I think the trick here, not only for the site transition, but in general, is to be flexible. We're pivoting every day, priorities are changing every day and that's also how we're responding to supply chain.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Speeding up</h2>
<p>At London-based fintech firm Finastra, the timing has been more serendipitous, suggests CIO Russ Soper: </p>
<blockquote><p>We were in the midst of implementing some improved collaboration tools and [working from home] just drove adoption through the roof pretty quickly. So from a silver lining perspective, it was probably the easiest rollout we've ever had do, with some new video capability and chatting capability and all kinds of collaboration tools. People have really gravitated towards that. </p>
<p>From a speeding up of our strategy perspective, we were born in the cloud, so that's certainly a big part of our strategy. For over two years now, we are digital everything and cloud everything, so this has sped that up from our products, our services. We have some on prem services [and] even the way we support those [has changed], doing them in a more distributed and online fashion. I would say [there's been a] heavy shift towards being focused on improved collaboration tools, video, everything. Trying to see people's faces is important, whether it's the sales process, the internal working team process. Video everything, digital everything and cloud everything would be the three pillars of what we really tried to do and and how we work internally, and how we deliver our services and maintain a global workforce.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even in a crisis, there’s a need to find ROI in tech strategy, he adds:</p>
<blockquote><p>We really do two three things - we build software, we host financial services for clients and we sell IT. Those are the three things. So from a technology perspective, [we are] really looking at those three processes and understanding, given the the changing world we're living in, how do we best enable those services in the most effective way, with technology, in the most cost efficient efficient way. So, the sales example. Traditionally in a sales cycle, very travel-oriented sales people would be on the road throughout the year. They fly to clients. They sit down. They build a relationship. They do a sales pitch in person. They may install something on the clients premise or we may host it, but there's a lot of personal interaction. That's all changed. </p>
<p>So how do we facilitate that from a technology perspective? Clearly there’s funding and investment that goes with that, but we would offset it with the reduced travel and other things, trying to re-direct funding into the most pragmatic way. Looking into development, finance has a large population of software developers, previously a mix of on site and Centers of Excellence around the world, maybe some remote, but predominantly on site. Now it's 98%,99% off site and remote working from home. Some areas were fairly smooth transitions, where we already had people who were technically savvy, so they could they could make that transition. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But as with Box, there were still challenges with the shift to remote : </p>
<blockquote><p>When you get into the day-to-day working, as they're doing large scale file transfers or other things that they may do throughout their course their day, those things take orders of magnitude more time, if it's going back and forth from their house, particularly in certain countries around the world. So how do we facilitate that? How do we facilitate BYOD? How do we improve our perimeter security, now that our entire workforce is working remotely? It continues to be an effort of understanding what are the business processes, where we spend our money today? The foundation is understanding how money is spent, whether you want to call it cost containment or demand management, different terms I think for different processes. But the first step is really having absolute clarity on where you're spending your money and are you getting value for that spend? Then you can align that against the shifting environment you're working in and we've had a big shift in the last 60, 90 days and understanding where you need to re-direct accordingly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That means modifying future plans in some cases, he says, but the crisis response has also validated existing assumptions: </p>
<blockquote><p>This event has made us re-think some aspects of it, particularly around the workplace the future, but it's also reinforced a lot of what we were already focused on. {We’re] saying, ‘How can we do this quicker, whether it be digital tools and collaboration and video cloud adoption of our products?’…It has sped up a lot of our existing strategies and reinforced them, maybe shifted a few, but looking at where we're investing money and making sure it's aligned to those future state strategies - around mobility, cloud everything, digital everything - is really the key.</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
<p class="field field--name-field-image-credit field--type-string field--label-inline">
<em>Image credit - via Pixabay </em>
</p>
<p class="field field--name-field-disclosure field--type-string-long field--label-inline">
<em>Disclosure - Chapman, Santiago and Soper took part in Everbridge's Coronavirus: The Road to Recovery summit. </em>
</p>
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<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/tags/coronavirus" hreflang="en">Coronavirus</a></div>
<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/tags/covid-19" hreflang="en">COVID-19</a></div>
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<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/hcm-hr-future-work/future-of-work" hreflang="en">Future of work</a></li>
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/iot/machine-intelligence-ai" hreflang="en">Machine intelligence and AI</a></li>
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Tue, 02 Jun 2020 11:45:34 +0000Stuart Lauchlan22298 at https://diginomica.comMatching remote working with empowered workers on ‘the coalface’ - Thoughtspot’s solution to post-Coronavirus changehttps://diginomica.com/matching-remote-working-empowered-workers-coalface-thoughtspots-solution-post-coronavirus-change
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Matching remote working with empowered workers on ‘the coalface’ - Thoughtspot’s solution to post-Coronavirus change</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/mbanks" class="username">Martin Banks</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Sun, 05/31/2020 - 22:32</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/matching-remote-working-empowered-workers-coalface-thoughtspots-solution-post-coronavirus-change" data-a2a-title="Matching remote working with empowered workers on ‘the coalface’ - Thoughtspot’s solution to post-Coronavirus change"><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
There is a growing need for businesses to democratise their exploitation of data analytics so its ‘coalface’ workers. The ability to work autonomously will thrust data democracy on to both them and their employers<br />
</dd>
</dl>
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<figcaption>(Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay )</figcaption>
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<p dir="ltr">It's rapidly become a familiar question - what happens after the pandemic in terms of what the ‘new normal' of work will look like?</p>
<p dir="ltr">The combined efforts of AI and search-based analytics specialist, ThoughtSpot, and Harvard Business Review Analytic Services resulted in a study that provided some options, which were followed up in an online meeting with ThoughtSpot CEO Sudheesh Nair.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The objective of the survey was to establish whether businesses thought it would be beneficial to give customer-facing workers richer tools with which to interact with those customers directly, without having to default to ‘I'll get back to you on that question'.</p>
<p dir="ltr">With COVID-19 obliging more and more customers to locate, source and purchase products and services online, the underlying question was whether businesses felt it would be advantageous if their first points of contact with customers could answer more questions, up to the point where they effectively `make the sale', even if they don't do the paperwork. That way, runs the theory, may lie real customer satisfaction.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There would, of course, be little point to this story if the majority of businesses felt there was no advantage in such capabilities. So there should be no surprise that HBR found that, indeed, the interest is instead high.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The report - The New Decision Makers: Equipping Frontline Workers For Success - polled 464 business executives across 16 industry sectors in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Respondents agreed the thesis that they would be more successful when frontline workers are empowered to make important decisions at any point they are needed. The one small problem with this was that right now only a minority had made any significant move to equip their frontline workers with the resources to do so in practice.</p>
<h2>Empower the frontline…but how?</h2>
<p dir="ltr">Thoughtspot CEO Nair believes that the most immediate issues post pandemic will revolve around commercial real estate and workplace design and functionality if the majority of those who have been obliged to work from home decide they would like to continue with that regime. Of course, it's equally possible that employers may want to encourage this attitude, for worker satisfaction as well as possible savings to be made in OpEx and general overheads.</p>
<p>If ongoing home working becomes a key element of the new normal, that will change many things for businesses, but all of them will hinge around analytics and the widest access to data that is possible. For example, Nair notes that, before ‘coalface' workers can be empowered, businesses need to have knowledge about the best available talent the business can attract, given that geography is no longer an issue:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">I personally have struggled to get hiring managers to go out and hire where the talent is. We have offices in Bangalore and Sunnyvale, so let's just hire around there because centre of gravity is important - that's been the conventional wisdom. The problem is there could be an amazing designer in Costa Rica. There could be great AI talent out of Ukraine, or in Bulgaria. Whether you're in Sunnyvale in California, you might as well be in Bulgaria, time zones notwithstanding. The place where analytics will play is when you have remote culture, people are distributed everywhere.</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">Identifying such talent will be a problem without the right tools, even though much of what a business needs to know about such talent is available as data. What's needed are analytic tools that can search for that kind of data, such as things they have written that can give clues to the way they think and code they have produced which indicates their inherent code quality and levels of productivity.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Nair sees this leading to a new model of recruiting, retention and encouragement of distributed workforces, and that will depend on the quality of data they assemble.</p>
<h2 dir="ltr">Be autonomous, not an automaton</h2>
<p dir="ltr">One of the factors that is likely to be an important by-product of the move to more permanent remote working is the likelihood that staff will not only be expected to act more autonomously than when tethered closely to the office mothership, but will also require new tools to help them work closely with the customers they are in contact with.</p>
<p dir="ltr">What is more, the old demarcations between those allowed to directly communicate with customers and those not allowed will need to fade away quite quickly. The communication delays inherent in the sales team asking variations on a customer query of the design office, production department, accounts etc, before getting back to the customer with a mashed-up answer have to go.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There are already suggestions that the imposition of remote working has created a situation where businesses are realising staff can be trusted to work, not take downtime. Indeed, it seems there are signs that many are happier, less-hassled (especially losing the rigors of commuting) and more productive. They are, it seems, responding positively to the greater responsibilities - both personal and professional - and are of a mind to take on more.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So, imagine that, if the right information is available, a ‘techie' might well be able to not only talk through the technical solution to a customer problem, but also related business issues involved in turning design into reality.</p>
<p dir="ltr">All of this, of course, hinges on the availability of that right information, and increasingly that means analytics tools available to them on their remote desktop. This is where Nair sees a growing opportunity for ThoughtSpot in this need to now empower the ‘coalface' workers:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">Is it a way to sell more stuff, or is there something more existential? If you unpack it, you learn that consumer aspirations about how a business should interact with them and how the business should serve them, has changed because of a couple of cool things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">The first of these is the increasing use of automated Robotic Process Automation and machine learning. The other is the rise of analytics and AI. Analytics can identify and pull together all the data relevant to that customer and use that data to derive answers that will help the customer reach a decision, while AI can extend that by using what the system has learned to extrapolate out to the as-yet-unthought, unconsidered possibilities and, yes, pitfalls. This gives the employee significantly more scope and responsibility, but it can easily bump up against internal communications problem. As Nair observes:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">The challenge there is you cannot teach all the business people SQL and coding, and you cannot teach the business analyst all the nuances of business.</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">There is still that need for tools - or a tool - that can both bridge that communications gap and provide the AI and analytics in a form that does not require to be learned from the ground up. That is one of the claims that Nair makes for ThoughtSpot, given that its user interface is, at heart, a search engine. The difference is that it uses machine learning to build its own knowledge of what the user typically searches for and AI to perform functions, such as extrapolate on from that knowledge, to identify new lines of search and enquiry that can be added to the process of analysis.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And it can search whatever data is available, not just the databases of a single business. To this end, ThoughtSpot has a growing range of partners amongst the third party public data providers such as Neilsen, which has one of the largest repositories of consume sentiment data available. Nair says:</p>
<blockquote><p dir="ltr">The complexity of the data, complexity of the relationships, and complexity of the queries are making it harder to deliver simple but relevant insight to the business. So all we are trying to do is democratise that.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 dir="ltr">My take</h2>
<p dir="ltr">`Democratise' is an apt way to look at this issue. The ThoughtSpot goal of creating an analytical tool that has the ubiquitous search engine UI as its start point makes building insights of value an extension to so many non-analysts' existing experience. A good part of the `black art' of analytics is set aside.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In the same way, the realisation that the necessity of remote working is probably proving an valuable by-product of the pandemic means that the democratisation of the use of data spreads the possibility of staff adding new value to the business as whole.</p>
</div>
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<div class="field__label">Tags</div>
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<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/tags/coronavirus" hreflang="en">Coronavirus</a></div>
<div class="field__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/tags/covid-19" hreflang="en">COVID-19</a></div>
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<span class="categories__label">Read more on: </span> <ul class="categories__list">
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Mon, 01 Jun 2020 05:32:04 +0000Martin Banks22292 at https://diginomica.comWhat we haven't missed this user conference season...https://diginomica.com/what-we-havent-missed-user-conference-season
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">What we haven't missed this user conference season...</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/brianssommer" class="username">Brian Sommer</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Thu, 05/28/2020 - 23:53</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/what-we-havent-missed-user-conference-season" data-a2a-title="What we haven't missed this user conference season..."><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
After a season of no physical conferences and vendor events, a very personal view of the 'new normal'...
</dd>
</dl>
<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>User conferences (and analyst events) are rarely the feel-good functions that vendors try to engineer. So, in a Spring season virtually devoid of these in-person extravaganzas, let’s remember what we’ve been missing. </p>
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<h2><b>Flying to the event</b></h2>
<p>Airline advertising imagery never matches the reality we all suffer when flying. There’s no food, cramped seating, pitiful service and no way to get any work done.</p>
<p>Oh, and forget an upgrade to first class. If you’re like me, you would have gotten that highly coveted, SPECIAL boarding assignment C76. Ah, smell that last row, middle seat by the washroom!</p>
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<h2><b>Smack talk at the arrival airport</b> </h2>
<p>After a connection or two and some terrible, overpriced food at other airports, you finally arrive at the conference airport.</p>
<p>Even though you didn’t check your bags, you still have to walk a fair piece to get to the Uber pickup point that is conveniently located in an adjacent county.</p>
<p>On the way, you’ll see a few airport billboards of overpriced implementation firms, cubic zirconium sponsors and those of the vendor’s competitors. You’ll laugh for a bit before schlepping your bags a few more miles.</p>
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<h2><b>The conference venue</b></h2>
<p>Even if it’s an intimate gathering of just 130,000+ attendees, the vendor will choose a site with spectacular ambience and comfort.</p>
<p>Hard steel folding chairs, no electric outlets, spotty/non-existent wi-fi and no Dr Pepper are what’s there for your comfort and productivity. </p>
<p>Who doesn’t want these creature comforts in their own home?</p>
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<h2><b>The Day 1 wake-up call</b></h2>
<p>For some inescapable reason, vendors think a marching band at 8 am ET is a great way to wake up everyone. For those too hungover from the pre-conference parties, it isn’t. I’ve determined that the real purpose of these bands in a small, low-ceiling hotel ballroom is to deafen all the attendees so that no one can hear the keynote to come. They have to do this as the keynote is so lacking in real news and real progress.</p>
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<h2><b>Take your assigned seat, the mind control initial keynote begins</b></h2>
<p>Well, those front row seats are reserved for well-heeled prospects, President’s Club winning salespersons and other vendor executives. Existing customers, industry analysts, etc. get the nose-bleed seats. Remember, we left home for this!</p>
<p>Usually, the first keynote will feature Glorious Leader, aka the software CEO. This pep talk is always bullish, optimistic and a feel-good festival all rolled into one. Sales will be up. New logos will be splashed on the screen. The plutonium, polycarbonate and ethylene glycol sponsors will be thanked. And, of course, the CEO will introduce his/her pet social responsibility firm and tell you how things are going with it. You’ll be encouraged to do something with them, too. But before the CEO ends their keynote, he/she will introduce the next executive to speak and, wait for it, thank them for their leadership. Don’t you love it when software executives are <b><i>all-in</i></b> on thanking each other? #TYFYL</p>
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<h2><b>The Expo Hall opens</b></h2>
<p>The sole purpose of these areas is to press the flesh between customers and other ecosystem players. That can’t happen in a social distancing world.</p>
<p>The best part of these events was to load up a bag of SWAG and take it back home to the office. I just don’t know if anyone will ever need more promotional t-shirts, ink pens or sand-filled stress balls.</p>
<p>My office is thankful I didn’t drag anymore of that stuff back this spring.</p>
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<h2><b>The Awards ceremony</b></h2>
<p>What’s a user conference without awards? You’ll see implementers, customers and even vendor sales people win awards.</p>
<p>Watch out though as old, slow-growing ERP vendors that have nothing tangible to celebrate still give out participation trophies!</p>
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<figcaption>(Author)</figcaption>
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<h2><b>Hm-mm, that delicious conference food</b></h2>
<p>Meals at a user conference can be..challenging.</p>
<p>Sometimes it will come in a box. Sometimes it’s wrapped in cellophane. Sometimes it’s an assemble-your-own flat meat sandwich </p>
<p>Or, the ultimate indignity, see menu item above...</p>
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<figcaption>(Author)</figcaption>
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<h2><b>Off to the airport again</b></h2>
<p>Finally, it’s time to go to the airport and move onto the next vendor event.</p>
<p>As the above photo shows, veteran industry analyst, Ray Wang (@rwang0)’s excitement is palpable as his plane is once again delayed.</p>
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<img alt="Sommer" src="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_full_desktop/public/images/2020-05/Screenshot%202020-05-29%20at%2008.20.26.png?itok=9eOMpSVx" />
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<figcaption>(Outfit - model's own)</figcaption>
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<h2><b>And don't forget to wear your flair...</b></h2>
<p>How can people know you’ve been to this event before if you don’t ridiculously proudly sport all of the flair you’ve accumulated before? All that flair can cost you in checked bag fees, though!</p>
<h2>My take</h2>
<p>Maybe we didn’t miss much this Spring after all. Yes, I missed some things like long hotel check-in lines, bed bugs (an occupation hazard for some industry analysts), overly slow expense reimbursements and more.</p>
<p>I actually enjoyed not completing a single expense report the last 4 months! Maybe this new normal isn’t so bad after all!<br />
</p>
<p> </p>
</div>
<p class="field field--name-field-image-credit field--type-string field--label-inline">
<em>Image credit - All photos courtesy of TechVentive, Inc. and used with permission. </em>
</p>
<p class="field field--name-field-disclosure field--type-string-long field--label-inline">
<em>Disclosure - Numerous vendors paid Brian’s travel costs (but wished they hadn’t). </em>
</p>
<div class="field field--name-field-category node__categories categories">
<span class="categories__label">Read more on: </span> <ul class="categories__list">
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/hcm-hr-future-work/future-of-work" hreflang="en">Future of work</a></li>
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/digital-marketing" hreflang="en">Digital and content marketing</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Fri, 29 May 2020 06:53:32 +0000Brian Sommer22287 at https://diginomica.comThink deep work isn't relevant to software engineers? Think again - Uplevel on the productivity impact of distraction culturehttps://diginomica.com/think-deep-work-isnt-relevant-software-engineers-think-again-uplevel-productivity-impact
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Think deep work isn't relevant to software engineers? Think again - Uplevel on the productivity impact of distraction culture</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/jreed" class="username">Jon Reed</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Thu, 05/28/2020 - 21:06</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/think-deep-work-isnt-relevant-software-engineers-think-again-uplevel-productivity-impact" data-a2a-title="Think deep work isn't relevant to software engineers? Think again - Uplevel on the productivity impact of distraction culture"><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
We thought remote work might get us away from workplace distractions - we were wrong. Deep work is an compelling alternative, but hard to protect and scale. Uplevel wants to change that - here's my illustrated review.
</dd>
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<figcaption>(via Uplevel)</figcaption>
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<p>Every diginomica author has an enterprise stump speech or two. For my part, I've (mostly) spared our readers from my stance on the differentiating importance of so-called "deep work."</p>
<p>Still, after seven years, this 2013 piece remains my favorite thing I've ever written here: <a href="https://diginomica.com/make-or-break-career-consequences-value-productivity">The career-defining consequences of value productivity</a>.</p>
<p>Anyone who writes about deep work has an intellectual debt to Cal Newport, author of a book on the subject (though I prefer his <a href="https://www.calnewport.com/blog/">Study Hacks blog</a>). I have my differences with Newport. I think his views are too idealistic for most modern workers, a topic I dissected in <a href="https://diginomica.com/rethinking-enterprise-productivity-a-critique-of-digital-minimalism">Rethinking enterprise productivity - a critique of digital minimalism</a>.</p>
<p>But here's what I didn't expect: to hear from an enterprise software vendor that founded their approach on the value of deep work - and literally embedded the scheduling and protection of deep work into their software. Thus began my dialogue with <a href="https://uplevelteam.com/">Uplevel</a>, via a fascinating talk with their CEO <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrjoelevy/">Joe Levy</a>.</p>
<p>Now, Uplevel doesn't mention deep work in their web tagline, "<em>Empower your engineers to do their best work. Use data-driven insights to lift your team to their highest potential</em>." And they aren't trying to solve the productivity issues of all modern workers. Their focus is on structuring, protecting and analyzing the deep work needs of software engineers.</p>
<p>That makes sense, when you consider that a perpetually distracted software engineer is not what employers ultimately need - even when they bear the ironic blame for distracting their engineers in the first place, via incessant pings and meetings.</p>
<h2>Software engineering productivity versus distraction culture</h2>
<p>How big a problem is workplace distraction? Uplevel documented the issues in their <em><a href="https://resources.uplevelteam.com/uplevel-state-of-engineering">2020 State of Engineering report.</a> </em>Via a survey of 240 U.S. based engineers, Uplevel concluded that even little distractions have big impacts. They cite research from Gloria Mark:</p>
<ul>
<li>An employee has 11 minutes of time to focus between distractions at work</li>
<li>After an interruption, it takes 23 minutes to return to the original task</li>
</ul>
<p>Excessive meetings remain a problem. From the report intro:</p>
<ul>
<li>The average worker attends 15 meetings per week</li>
<li>Over 3,000 employees identified the #1 time-waster: “Too many meetings"</li>
<li>65% say meetings prevent work and deep thinking</li>
</ul>
<p>As for the productivity obstacles facing software engineers, this Uplevel chart lays it out:</p>
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<figcaption>(via Uplevel.com)</figcaption>
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<p><em>Software engineer productivity graphic via Uplevel's <a href="https://resources.uplevelteam.com/uplevel-state-of-engineering">2020 State of Engineering report.</a> </em></p>
<p>What if we accept that workplace interruptions and excessive meetings impact productivity? Uplevel argues that "<em>an effective way to overcome these issues is to make time and space for deep work</em>." So how is deep work defined? Uplevel's take:</p>
<blockquote><p>Deep work is a two hour period of uninterrupted work, outside of meetings, which notably increases productivity -- and is critical for software engineering teams.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Levy told me that software engineers are often measured by tools that do a poor job of indicating productivity. Sure, measure the number of help tickets processed if you want, or how many lines of code you wrote. Levy isn't buying it:</p>
<blockquote><p>It would be the equivalent to measuring a painter by the number of gallons of paint they used. And it's not a measure of quality.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It's a problem I see across corporate work: too often, KPI culture measures our performance with the wrong criteria. Just because you can measure it doesn't mean you should - nor should that measurement necessarily become a personal KPI.</p>
<p>And no, our remote workplaces haven't made productivity obstacles easier. If anything, it's heightened the intensity of "ping culture." Whether it's email, text message, Slack or Teams, someone is always pinging us. Levy:</p>
<blockquote><p>We've given [software engineers] Slack, which is a more jugular way to perhaps pivot your work, but we've also created huge noise at the same time. We haven't given them very good tools.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Uplevel's approach to software engineer productivity - illustrated</h2>
<p>How does Uplevel address this problem? No, not by eradicating these intrusive modern tools. That wouldn't be remotely feasible. They do it by managing and structuring deep work in a way that is completely visible to managers and teams.</p>
<p>I really wanted to see this in action. In the past, I've advised individuals to educate their teams and employers on when they take "deep work time," but asking an individual to manage that pro-actively is a difficult ask.</p>
<p>With Uplevel, an engineer or team manager can specifically book time for deep work. Here's a management view:</p>
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<figcaption>(via Uplevel)</figcaption>
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<p>Then... Boom!</p>
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<figcaption>(via Uplevel)</figcaption>
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<p>But scheduling "deep work" doesn't make it so. The risk of losing that deep work to interruptions remains. Thus see this deep work time notice, complete with Cal Newport quote:</p>
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<img alt="deep work - distraction protection from Uplevel" src="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_full_desktop/public/images/2020-05/deep-work-protect.jpg?itok=u6h8lj5C" title="deep work - distraction protection from Uplevel" />
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<figcaption>(via Uplevel)</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Levy told me that Uplevel overlays data from common engineering tools like Slack. So if you were interrupted during your deep work session, or got pulled into a situation, that interruption gets tracked. Reporting dashboards provide comparative metrics:</p>
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<div data-embed-button="media" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.embed_full" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="35adba5f-386b-4873-917d-3bcda5df9182" data-langcode="en"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-embed-full">
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<source media="all and (min-width: 30em)" srcset="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_full_desktop/public/images/2020-05/deep-work-metrics.jpg?itok=2zlNt1N4 1x" type="image/jpeg"></source>
<source srcset="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_mobile/public/images/2020-05/deep-work-metrics.jpg?itok=TqMkVueA 1x, https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_mobilke_2x/public/images/2020-05/deep-work-metrics.jpg?itok=Q6tEH2El 2x" type="image/jpeg"></source>
<img alt="deep work analysis - Uplevel" src="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_full_desktop/public/images/2020-05/deep-work-metrics.jpg?itok=2zlNt1N4" title="deep work analysis - Uplevel" />
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</article>
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<figcaption>(via Uplevel)</figcaption>
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<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>And how do engineers respond to this tool? Levy:</p>
<blockquote><p>Right before the session, we will remind them again, "This is your deep work session." That means you go get the headphones, turn off Slack notifications, and go attack that bug for the next two to three hours - and really see what you can get done.</p>
<p>What's been really interesting is: people love it individually, and people really love it as a team sport, because your bigger interruptions tend to come from your immediate colleagues [Snarky editor's note: that's definitely true at diginomica!]. So we get these fun quotes from engineers, like "I was so productive, I didn't know what to do."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The daunting problem with deep corporate work is logistically protecting it at scale. Uplevel is pushing to do that; their customers have development teams ranging from 100 to 10,000. Interestingly, the COVID-19 induced remote work surge has actually made Uplevel's tool more accurate.</p>
<p>The one type of interruption Uplevel couldn't account for and track? Hallway conversations and cubicle visits. Now, good luck tapping your co-worker on the shoulder. Though there is a new issue: children and pets aren't the biggest fans of adult deep work time.</p>
<p>Uplevel is now helping customers with a different challenge: the danger of too much deep work, and too much remote isolation. They encourage customers to structure deep work sessions around social interactions and team activities.</p>
<p>Levy told me about a customer on the east coast - about 800 developers. Their SVP was a bit cautious about the Uplevel rollout, so they sent an announcement about the tool, made a short video on using Uplevel, and said it would be opt-in. Levy:</p>
<blockquote><p>In his video, he said that the best feature of Uplevel is their ability to really help us with deep work. We know the problem we have in our company is that everyone gets randomized a lot. We're really trying to help people get their focus time back.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Based on that video message, about 150 people signed in immediately, and they were off and running. Levy finds that even when management brings the tool in, engineers respond well. "Protecting your time" is a message that resonates.</p>
<h2>My take</h2>
<p>I am encouraged by the design and intent behind this solution. I hope to talk to customers down the line, and get further into challenges/benefits.</p>
<p>Tools like these do raise concerns. Put this kind of monitoring power in the hands of a problematic employer; suddenly it becomes more like surveillance than empowerment. I believe much of that can be alleviated by pro-active education. And, perhaps on rare occasions, walking away from a customer that doesn't seem like they will be a good ambassador for what this is about.</p>
<p>Obviously, a U.S.-based survey of 240 engineers is a limited sample size. But I see no reason why this data wouldn't hold up in a larger sample. The encroachment of digital interruption on productivity is everywhere.</p>
<p>I never believe that a software tool, however elegant, can make up for a culture problem. But, the right software can certainly be a catalyst for change. This is a change that helps both individuals and their employees. I believe it has positive implications for the development of IP, not to mention career transformation.</p>
<p>The issue of value productivity versus task productivity applies to just about every job in the modern enterprise. Yes, I'd argue, even salespeople and customer service reps. That's a debate I had with Levy; I'll gladly have it with anyone else who is up for it also. But I understand why Uplevel remains focused on software engineers. That's a worthy demographic to serve, with loads of opportunity in that role alone.</p>
<p><em>This piece is part of my ongoing diginomica series, <a href="https://www.bagtheweb.com/b/ewFZ3q">Jon Reed on productivity, filtering, and beating the noise.</a></em></p>
</div>
<p class="field field--name-field-image-credit field--type-string field--label-inline">
<em>Image credit - Screen shots provided and used by permission of Uplevel, including feature image.</em>
</p>
<div class="field field--name-field-category node__categories categories">
<span class="categories__label">Read more on: </span> <ul class="categories__list">
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/it-as-a-service/digital-skills-training" hreflang="en">Digital skills and training</a></li>
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/hcm-hr-future-work" hreflang="en">HCM and the digital future of work</a></li>
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/collaboration" hreflang="en">Collaboration sharing and digital productivity</a></li>
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/collaboration/productivity" hreflang="en">Productivity</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Fri, 29 May 2020 04:06:42 +0000Jon Reed22285 at https://diginomica.comRachel Happe in conversation about The State of Community Management 2020https://diginomica.com/rachel-happe-conversation-about-state-community-management-2020
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Rachel Happe in conversation about The State of Community Management 2020</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/gonzodaddy" class="username">Den Howlett</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Thu, 05/28/2020 - 05:00</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/rachel-happe-conversation-about-state-community-management-2020" data-a2a-title="Rachel Happe in conversation about The State of Community Management 2020"><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
The backdrop to the State of Community Management 202 report gave Rachel Happe and Den an opportinity to speculate on how current conditions provide a way to reset the nature of work and people's role in driving value through community.
</dd>
</dl>
<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><iframe data-name="pb-iframe-player" height="122" scrolling="no" src="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/p43jc-dde9de?from=yiiadmin&download=1&version=1&skin=1&btn-skin=107&auto=0&share=1&fonts=Helvetica&download=1&rtl=0&pbad=1" style="border: none;" title="diginomica - Episode #85 - a conversation about community with Rachel Happe" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p>Last year when I spoke with Rachel Happe about what was then the 10th annual State of Community Management, there was good reason to be hopeful that the concept of community had finally broken out of its backwater and had the potential to become mainstream. Fast forward to this year and while there continues to be hope, little has changed. At least that's my perception. </p>
<p>However, that's not quite the case and for this year's survey, Happe broke out the differences between internal and external communities. it is striking that external communities generate way more ROI (4,530%) than internal communities (1,967%). Part of the reason stems from the fact that the component parts that fuel external community ROI are relatively easy to measure: customer loyalty, reduced support costs coupled with better awareness and branding are the top three business outcomes. Where there is demonstrable ROI for internal communities, they not only figure lower but are seen as far more difficult to measure. (see image below)</p>
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<source media="all and (min-width: 30em)" srcset="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_full_desktop/public/images/2020-05/community%20ROI%202020.jpg?itok=tHFSlLs7 1x" type="image/jpeg"></source>
<source srcset="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_mobile/public/images/2020-05/community%20ROI%202020.jpg?itok=IB3FfIpl 1x, https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_mobilke_2x/public/images/2020-05/community%20ROI%202020.jpg?itok=YYrCL89E 2x" type="image/jpeg"></source>
<img alt="state of community management" src="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_full_desktop/public/images/2020-05/community%20ROI%202020.jpg?itok=tHFSlLs7" title="SOCM" />
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<figcaption>(via Community Roundtable)</figcaption>
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<p>COVID-19 has provided a generational opportunity to re-evaluate the place of community and in compiling the report, it is heartening to see that while 35% of respondents reported stalled or significantly stalled plans, 40% reported accelerated plans to one degree or another. </p>
<p>The problem though is that many organizations are not investing to the extent necessary in order to achieve significant benefits. That is despite the fact that the report believes there is massive untapped potential. Happe says that a big part of the problem comes in two flavors. First, 62% of community leaders have one or fewer staff so their ability to create community programs is extremely limited. Second, only 39% of respondents can calculate what a financial return looks like.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://communityroundtable.com">plenty of other stats</a> over which to pore (subscription required) and I won't spoil your enjoyment of same except to say the picture is pretty clear: a failure to both invest and measure is holding back companies at a time when you'd otherwise think that community matters. And it was in that vein that we held what I believe is both an insightful and challenging conversation. </p>
<p>During the call, I asked Happe to explain what needs to happen. In this context, we have to take a step back as we debated why people are not on the balance sheet of reporting companies prior to recording the conversation.</p>
<p>It's a complex topic that Happe believes has its roots in the way slaves were accounted for in the 17th-19th centuries and as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Accounting-Slavery-Management-Caitlin-Rosenthal/dp/0674972090">outlined in this book by historian Caitlin Rosenthal</a>. While that may seem controversial, the development of advanced management techniques by plantation owners and the subsequent rise of accounting based on the deeply flawed Taylorism serves to reduce human activity to that of widgets. </p>
<blockquote><p>People are not widgets and until we get past that mindset it is difficult to see how we create meaningful measures that firms can both accept and understand. Until we innovate our accounting practices, and our legal practices, we will not really transform our organisations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That's pretty powerful stuff and a throw down to those professions to engage with community managers to help them figure out the metrics that matter and which can be purposefully applied to people. I argued this sounds like a need for a cultural shift but Happe thinks differently, arguing that governance needs p[utting in place because that serves to drive behavior. It's an interesting idea but equally, I can imagine the difficulties in finding a common language around which governance can evolve. </p>
<p>Moving on, we discussed the impediments to inculcating change, and one of the factors Happe pointed out was how hierarchies have served to ensure that the people who get heard are those who fit into predefined 'boxes' of attributes. </p>
<blockquote><p>The problem with that is that if you're neurodiverse, a person of color or on and on then you're an exception to 'our process' but when you think about it, everyone is an exception so the idea of creating these artificial constructs around what people should do, etc constrains the very organizations that are seeking to be the best they can be. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>So does the COVID-19 pandemic help to move this conversation forward? Here, Happe is uncertain. </p>
<blockquote><p>I think certainly, it will accelerate and and empower some people that were already working towards change. I think it will get a large swath of other people to at least open up their minds to the fact that something really big does have to change. And I think for another set of people, they just want to get back to where things were, because where things were, if not perfect, were stable for them. And they were relatively successful in the system as it existed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As always in these kinds of conversations, the potential for meaningful and purposeful change that benefits everyone is in tension with the interests of powerful investors who have been brought up on the notion that capital is king. In my mind, the reset of which Happe runs the risk of being perceived as at odds with the capitalist mantra. The problem is that as Happe points out, when done well, the community benefits everyone because you create a virtuous circle of benefit that is both obvious and repeatable.</p>
<p>In closing, I could not help but wonder if, with all the technology available to us, whether we are on the cusp of discovering something fundamentally refreshing or whether we end up regressing to a past state because it is familiar and comfortable. Like Happe, I have no idea which way this goes but my guess is that as large parts of the economy move closer to remote working as the new normal that community will have to play a significant role in workplace cohesion. Perhaps that's the entry point? We shall see. </p>
<p>But of one thing you can be certain - we shall have this conversation again. And soon. It is too important to leave another year. </p>
<p> </p>
</div>
<p class="field field--name-field-image-credit field--type-string field--label-inline">
<em>Image credit - screenshot from YouTube video</em>
</p>
<div class="field field--name-field-category node__categories categories">
<span class="categories__label">Read more on: </span> <ul class="categories__list">
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/hcm-hr-future-work" hreflang="en">HCM and the digital future of work</a></li>
<li class="categories__item"><a href="https://diginomica.com/category/collaboration/social" hreflang="en">Social</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
Thu, 28 May 2020 12:00:44 +0000Den Howlett22283 at https://diginomica.comRemember the human connection! - reviewing the HR response to COVID-19 with Tripadvisor's Chief People Officer Beth Grous https://diginomica.com/remember-human-connection-reviewing-hr-response-covid-19-tripadvisors-chief-people-officer-beth
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Remember the human connection! - reviewing the HR response to COVID-19 with Tripadvisor's Chief People Officer Beth Grous </span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/slauchlan" class="username">Stuart Lauchlan</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Thu, 05/28/2020 - 03:19</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/remember-human-connection-reviewing-hr-response-covid-19-tripadvisors-chief-people-officer-beth" data-a2a-title="Remember the human connection! - reviewing the HR response to COVID-19 with Tripadvisor's Chief People Officer Beth Grous "><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
From never having had an office shutdown day to pivoting to remote working around the globe, Tripadvisor's response to COVID-19 is reframing the way that it thinks about the future of work.
</dd>
</dl>
<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p></p><figure role="group" class="caption caption-div embedded-entity align-right">
<div data-embed-button="media" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.embed" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="355f1c8b-0f3b-4219-8211-927c21f09c6b" data-langcode="en"><article class="media media--type-image media--view-mode-embed">
<div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <picture>
<source media="all and (min-width: 30em)" srcset="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_desktop/public/images/2020-05/Screenshot%202020-05-28%20at%2011.31.53.png?itok=AHSm70Zo 1x, https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_desktop_2x/public/images/2020-05/Screenshot%202020-05-28%20at%2011.31.53.png?itok=1eSl3jpU 2x" type="image/png"></source>
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<img alt="Tripadvisor" src="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_desktop/public/images/2020-05/Screenshot%202020-05-28%20at%2011.31.53.png?itok=AHSm70Zo" />
</picture>
</div>
</article>
</div>
<figcaption>(via Tripadvisor )</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Review and recommendations platform provider Tripadvisor had an interesting boast it could make until recently - despite being headquartered in Boston, the company had never closed its head office, even for a bad snow day. According to Chief People Officer Beth Grous:</p>
<blockquote><p>Our offices have always remained open. That was very, very much part of the culture…We’ve just never had a culture of fully shutting down, even though we've had a lot of snow in some very recent years. We are just not a fully remote culture. We literally went fully remote around the world within about 36 hours.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The trigger for that radical pivot was, of course, COVID-19. Grous says: </p>
<blockquote><p>For us, it goes without saying that as a travel website, the impact of the virus on our business was profound and immediate. Unlike some other industries, the travel, restaurant and hospitality industry sort of came to a screeching halt almost overnight around the globe. It was quite clear to us that this was on a humanitarian level, on a public health level, on an employee level, on a business level, just going to be totally uncharted waters that we we were in and we were going to be in for some time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The firm has had to make some tough calls in recent months - pay cuts for staff, laying off around a quarter of its headcount and furloughing a further 23%. With 52 offices in more than 20 countries around the globe, the firm has had to adapt to the evolving crisis, not least in terms of how it has managed its workforce and planned for a new way of working post-pandemic. </p>
<p>Tripadvisor had seen early signs of what was to come from observing its operations in Asia, but the it was the sudden closure of borders to Italy that seems to have been the trigger for action. As Grous tells it: </p>
<blockquote><p>One of the things that was very clear to us is that we needed to know not just where [our employees] were, but where they had been. We weren't doing a lot of business travel at that point because of the pandemic, but we knew employees had been doing a fair amount of personal travel. So we launched a form to track, so we would know who to task to self quarantine, etc. Within 12 hours of launching that form, we had 450 responses from employees. That was the moment where we looked at ourselves collectively and said, 'We just have to close all of our offices because we're eating the elephant at the wrong end'. That was the conversation in that moment, [when] we just realised that this was quite unlike anything we'd seen.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The near-overnight shift to remote working went smoothly thanks to prior investment and planning: </p>
<blockquote><p>What enabled that was we had the technology to do it. We had the right tools and the right systems and the right infrastructure in place that when we loaded it with hundred percent of our workforce, it held up and it was robust.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That's not to say that there weren't questions thrown up that needed to be tackled: </p>
<blockquote><p>[It] is a real paradigm shift for us around remote work and some of the complexities that, outside of a crisis, you might have thought were insurmountable. How do customer support agents who are dealing with PII [Personally Identifiable Information] and credit cards do that at home? How do we move sales? Where there's an infrastructure around people, how do we move it at home?</p>
<p>When you have a crisis, you just kind of do it and you figure it out. We've jokingly said to each other, 'Don't let a good crisis go to waste'. Use it as an opportunity to think about total re-invention and swinging for the fences and making calls that you in a different, more stable world would never have even thought of, but now's the time to be bold.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Good to talk </h2>
<p>The distributed nature of Tripadvisor’s officer around the world means that the firm’s operating hours span up to 20 hours of the Earth’s timezones. Notification tech from companies, including the likes of Everbridge, were used to alert staff via their mobile phones of developments. This was particularly important in some parts of the world, recalls Grous: </p>
<blockquote><p>Particularly in those countries where there's not always an email culture, to push notifications out to say, 'Check your email, we have emerging news, real time news about whether your office is going to be open or closed'. We launched a number of electronic tools to be in two-way communication with our employees.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Communication, both internally and externally, is key to managing this sort of situation, she argues, highlighting: </p>
<blockquote><p>The importance for us of real time transparent communication with the global workforce, with customers, but particularly for our employees to say, 'Here's what we know, here's what we don't. We're going to keep communicating. Here are our guiding principles. We're going to keep you safe. We are going to make thoughtful decisions. We may move more slowly than you might be used to, to make sure that we we get it right, and if we don't think we've got it, right, we're going to undo that'. </p>
<p>We still to this day [are] probably communicating with our workforce in the form of town halls and other communications at a multiple of how we have ever communicated with them. It's really been the cornerstone of what has not only gotten us through, but has enabled us to stay productive, which has been really remarkable. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And it’s a two way communication, she adds, with management putting in place as many feedback options for employees as possible: </p>
<blockquote><p>We have spent a lot of time in listening mode with our people, asking them,'How's it going? How's your productivity? What do you need? Is this working? What do we need to know to make this more effective?'.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Increased open communication between organizations has also been one of the more pleasant side effects of the current situation, observes Grous:</p>
<blockquote><p>For me, one of the really wonderful things of this crisis is seeing how many leaders and executives - whether they're HR leaders or other leaders - are coming together as a community and sharing information in a way that I couldn't have imagined prior to this crisis. What are you doing for severance? How are you thinking about re-opening? Are you asking employees to wear masks in the office? How are you thinking about your workforce that needs to take public transportation? When are you re-opening? There is this sort of wonderful collaboration that I see happening. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Re-opening recommendations</h2>
<p>On the question of re-opening, Tripadvisor, in common with other companies, is starting to look to what the world beyond lockdown will look like. The answer is, of course, not the same as it was before - and that has organizational and HR implications that need to be addressed. Grous opines: </p>
<blockquote><p>I do think that remote work is here to stay. We've had a very strong culture around our physical space, around our physical offices. They've been very much a purposeful manifestation of our culture, and they historically have been built in ways like in our headquarters, with a world cuisine free cafeteria that not only reflects the kind of world travel business that we're in, but also reflects the fact that we want people to be in a community, sitting together, breaking bread, socialising, being with one another. All of that is turned entirely on its head with this pandemic and we've had to completely re-imagine how we think about physical space. How much physical space should we have around the world? What's the purpose of an office, at least in the sort of mid-to-near term? And is that the same purpose as it is in the long term?</p>
<p>All of that feeds to the culture question and to be quite candid, we're not there yet. We haven't figured out exactly how to do this right. We're sort of feeling our way. Our headlights are a few feet ahead of us and we're driving slowly across the country with that much light. But what we do know is that this creates a real opportunity for us to really re-think how do we use our physical space? How much money do we spend on our physical space?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That said, Grous believes that there will remain a purpose for physical office space, but that organizations will need to adjust their expectations of staff. For example, don’t assume that people will transport themselves to the office Monday through Friday as they've always done:</p>
<blockquote><p>I think that many employees around the globe have very much enjoyed, relished, the opportunity to work remotely; some have not. There are people at home saying, 'Get me back to the office. I'm in a cramped city apartment with three roommates and this is not working for me'. So there will always be that balance. For us, it is really about thinking about this purposefully, bringing people together as we're slowly able to come back, to bring our employees together and talk about how do we collectively re-invent this together.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A good starting point is framing the current debate is framing it with the correct language, she advises - this is about a return to the office, not a return to work, given that people are still working, just remotely. But there will be common challenges: </p>
<blockquote><p>For most employers, you're going to be dealing with a couple of things. You're going to be dealing with the needs of your workforce, the fears of your workforce, circumstances outside of their control, and government regulations. So you may [desire to get] people back into a workplace, but you may be limited by your state, federal country, city government, to only be able to occupy 10% of your building, 20% of your building, 30% of your building…Even if I was to go back to my [office] desk tomorrow...only a fraction of the workforce would be there. Then I'd have to wear mask most of the time if I was moving outside of my office. I think we really have to ask ourselves like, how worthwhile is that right now as we return? </p>
<p>And if it is worthwhile, and there are many places where it is worthwhile, how do you still offer that 'remote first' culture and make sure that your people who can't get there, who are afraid to get there or have physical medical reasons why they shouldn't be there or people in their family have those concerns, that they don't then feel like second class citizens? That it is not the sort of badge of honor, that you've come back to the office and you've braved this. There are some real considerations, like employees saying, 'Oh, I'm perfectly fine being in the office, but I'm not getting on the subway’.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>People-first</h2>
<p>As a self-confessed ‘glass half full’ person, Grous is trying to see upsides that can emerge from the current crisis. The growing organizational acceptance of flexible working is clearly one of them, enabling businesses potentially to tap into a wider talent management pool than previous practice allowed. Companies need to recognize a new obligation here, she suggests: </p>
<blockquote><p>How do you meet your talent rather than saying, 'Here's our framework, and either you fit into it or you don’t'. Many people, particularly if they're facing care issues, elder care issues, child care issues, the uncertainty of schools and other care options for some number of many months, will want to know that a company understands and supports the need for flexible work - and at every level. Certainly in our organization, we've seen a light speed rapid evolution of leaders embracing that as a key both attraction and retention lever for all of our talent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Appropriately enough for a Chief People Officer, Grous has one caution to leave behind - don’t forget the people in all this: </p>
<blockquote><p>One of the things we miss right now, being out of the office, is the opportunity to bump into someone at the salad bar in the cafeteria and say, 'Hey, how was your weekend?’ or, you know, pass them in the hall and say, 'Oh, I'm so glad I just ran into you, let's have this quick conversation' or even, 'I like your shoes’, which sometimes sparks a dialogue. We will have to be very deliberate about creating those moments for connection, where there's not a business agenda, where it's just around the human connection. </p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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<p class="field field--name-field-image-credit field--type-string field--label-inline">
<em>Image credit - Tripadvisor</em>
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<p class="field field--name-field-disclosure field--type-string-long field--label-inline">
<em>Disclosure - Beth Grous was a speaker at Everbridge's Coronavirus: The Road to Recovery virtual summit. </em>
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Thu, 28 May 2020 10:19:12 +0000Stuart Lauchlan22281 at https://diginomica.comWorkday downgrades full year outlook as it cements partnerships with Microsoft and Salesforcehttps://diginomica.com/workday-downgrades-full-year-outlook-it-cements-partnerships-microsoft-and-salesforce-0
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Workday downgrades full year outlook as it cements partnerships with Microsoft and Salesforce</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://diginomica.com/author/gonzodaddy" class="username">Den Howlett</a></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Wed, 05/27/2020 - 22:13</span>
<span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_46 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="https://diginomica.com/workday-downgrades-full-year-outlook-it-cements-partnerships-microsoft-and-salesforce-0" data-a2a-title="Workday downgrades full year outlook as it cements partnerships with Microsoft and Salesforce"><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_linkedin"></a><a class="a2a_button_reddit"></a><a class="a2a_button_buffer"></a><a class="a2a_button_flipboard"></a></span>
<dl class="node__summary summary">
<dt class="summary__label">Summary: </dt> <dd class="summary__content">
Workday turned in good numbers for Q1 FY2021, revised its guidance and offered plenty of caveats
</dd>
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<source media="all and (min-width: 30em)" srcset="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_desktop/public/images/2020-04/Aneel%20Bhusri%20Workday%20Innovation%20Summit%202020%20by%20%40holgermu.jpg?itok=0IWiTCd_ 1x, https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_desktop_2x/public/images/2020-04/Aneel%20Bhusri%20Workday%20Innovation%20Summit%202020%20by%20%40holgermu.jpg?itok=sacnC1Ak 2x" type="image/jpeg"></source>
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<img alt="Aneel Bhusri Workday Innovation Summit 2020 by @holgermu" src="https://diginomica.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_images_desktop/public/images/2020-04/Aneel%20Bhusri%20Workday%20Innovation%20Summit%202020%20by%20%40holgermu.jpg?itok=0IWiTCd_" title="Aneel Bhusri Workday Innovation Summit 2020 by @holgermu" />
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<figcaption>Aneel Bhusri, Workday (by @holgermu)</figcaption>
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<p>To no-one's surprise. <a href="https://www.workday.com/en-us/company/newsroom/press-releases/press-release-details.html?id=2039713">Workday recorded its first $1 billion quarter one revenue</a> for Q1 FY2021. Robynne Sisco, CFO Workday provided the detail:</p>
<blockquote><p>...with subscription revenue of $882 million, up 26% year-over-year, and professional services revenue of $136 million, up 10%. The total revenue outside the U.S. was up 30% to $256 million. Subscription revenue backlog was $8.19 billion at the end of the first quarter, growth of 20% year-over-year. Subscription revenue backlog that will be recognized within the next 24 months was $5.52 billion, growth of 21%.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Her commentary on the downgrade is interesting. In common with just about everyone else, the early days of COVID-19 produced an environment that can best be described as chaotic. But as the quarter unfolded, Sisco claims the company got a better line of sight into where it expects to land for the year. The forecast reduction in outlook is negligible from that offered at year end to a range of $3.67-3.69 billion for subscription revenue and $500 million for services. That still represents comparatively healthy growth of 19%. Sisco offered three reasons why the model remains comparatively resilient:</p>
<blockquote><p>First, we primarily serve the large and medium enterprise market. And although even the largest companies are not immune to the current economic environment, we believe they are better positioned than SMBs to weather this downturn. </p>
<p>Second, while our licensing model is based on the number of workers within our customers' organizations, we have measures in place that help reduce near-term volatility from employment changes. As an example, our contracts are typically only trued up annually to account for increases and decreases in worker counts. </p>
<p>In addition, our contracts have base minimums, which limit our downside. And it is only upon contract renewal, which is typically every 3 to 5 years, that our customers have the opportunity to reset these base levels. </p>
<p>And finally, we are very strategic to our customers, which makes our products incredibly sticky. As a result, while we may see some moderation in retention rates in the near term, likely due to increased bankruptcies and reduction in base worker counts during renewals, we expect that our retention rates will remain high.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Paradoxically, Workday sees room for margin expansion through the rest of the year, largely as a result of unused establishment costs. One fly in the ointment - Workday is withdrawing from providing cashflow guidance for the remainder of the year. The reason given is that it needs to maintain flexibility among the customer base and to have the means to offer extended credit terms. How this will shape up over the year is yet to be determined, hence the withdrawal of guidance on this element of the outlook. At the quarter end, Workday held net cash of around $1.4 billion after accounting for long term debt of $1.5 billion. </p>
<h2>What happens to the pipeline?</h2>
<p>In comments, Aneel Bhusri, CEO Workday likened the current environment to the 2008-09 financial crisis. Accordingly. the company is dusting off its old playbook of accelerated time to value. In addition, Bhusri notes that (some) potential customers who are using legacy on-premises systems are struggling to keep the lights on where people are needed on site to manage the IT landscape in an otherwise locked down environment. </p>
<p>One question that's been top of mind for me comes in terms of deal closing which normally requires intensive in-person negotiations. Those kinds of question have left me wondering what happens to the pipeline, whether it dries up, whether closing is possible at all. Sisco dismissed those concerns, arguing that:</p>
<blockquote><p>We have always had a pretty significant portion of our sales cycle done virtually anyhow, particularly in the presales portion and the demoing of our software. And so what has changed is that we have moved the entire process virtually. </p>
<p>In terms of what we adapted, as I said on some of my remarks, we adapted our messaging and areas of focus by solution and industry. And we clearly focus more, double down on those go-to-market motions that we have more confidence that would yield best returns during these times. And obviously, you can think -- focus more on some of the surging industries or some solutions, like it could be Planning or Prism, Learning or Scout, some of the motions that we think will produce better results.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Let's see how this works out. There are enough unknowns in the general environment for us to remain skeptical for the time being. Chano Fernandez, co-President Workday confirmed that sense of volatility when he said: </p>
<blockquote><p>We're still below our normal engagement levels and also below our normal pipeline builds. But there has been a significant uptick in engagement and positive sentiment relative to, I would say, four weeks ago. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As if to emphasize the point, Bhusri added in comments about the backlog:</p>
<blockquote><p>I think what everybody needs to recognize is that no one knows how it's going to play out over the next couple of quarters. We don't know if there's going to be another outbreak. And so everything that we are saying is our best information at this point in time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To which Sisco added:</p>
<blockquote><p>And as you know, the backlog is tied to net new. It's also tied to renewals, and then it's tied of duration. And we really haven't seen -- we don't have enough data yet to predict those, how they could play out over the back half of the year because we just have far less visibility.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Microsoft and Salesforce partnerships</h2>
<p>As to the partnerships, Workday also announced expanded relationships with both Microsoft and Salesforce. These are significant. The Microsoft deal builds on a relationship that goes back to 2016 but now includes the ability to host Adaptive on Azure. This is a significant stepping stone that, while not available until next year allows Microsoft shops to better manage their infrastructure costs. At the same time, Workday announced that Microsoft has become a Workday Adaptive customer.</p>
<p>Finally, the expanded Salesforce relationship is about helping customers get people back to work. Bhusri explained it this way:</p>
<blockquote><p>We have all the data about employees, locations, what they're learning in terms of the learning content. And Salesforce has a whole set of things with Work.com around contact tracing, tracking skills, shifts. And we're just making sure that the two technologies are completely synced so customers don't have to reconcile between the two. And if you -- and so if you're a joint customer, hopefully, this solution is really going to help you manage your way back into the office.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>My take</h2>
<p>Workday has a history of playing down growth and then surprising the market to the extent that it's almost expected that the company will shoot past its projected outcomes. This time the company is optimistic but with enough caveats around to ensure that analysts don't get too giddy with a one time report. Sisco is right to emphasize the uncertainties and it is instructive that Q3-4 are sufficiently murky that Workday remains cautious. However, the relatively small adjustment to the full year outcome surprises me. </p>
<p>SaaS firms usually do well in a downturn, in large part because they're not dependent upon blockbuster deals to meet quarterly numbers. Their revenue is largely predictable, even in a downturn. However, while we cannot know, as Bhusri states, whether there will be a second wave of infection, we equally cannot know what the upside looks like and whether as some predict, it has a bullwhip effect. </p>
<p>However, I'm not as convinced as Bhusri about making comparisons between 2008-09 and 2020. To me, there is something fundamentally different and which starts with people and their relationship to the workplace. Workday is well positioned to take advantage of changes in direction on this matter and has enough by way of developed applications that add needed value to operate both a land-and-expand and net new strategies. </p>
<p>The question then comes, does Workday have sufficient market credibility to stick with its numbers? Anaplan for example got whacked in after hours when, <a href="https://twitter.com/APPSRUNTHEWORLD/status/1265399057591070721">according to Albert Pang:</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Anaplan stock fell 8% after issuing 2QFY21 guidance that suggested a pullback in Cloud EPM spending b/c pandemic. While Anaplan posted a 37% jump in revenues in 1QFY21, it now expects a 23% rise in 2QFY21 sales, less than half of what it did in 2QFY20.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Contrast this with Adaptive saying it saw a 30x uplift in planning usage the last quarter with no signs of a slowing down. If you believe that a flight to safety is appropriate then Workday is well positioned to take advantage of its strengths. </p>
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<p class="field field--name-field-disclosure field--type-string-long field--label-inline">
<em>Disclosure - Workday is a premier partner at the time of writing</em>
</p>
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Thu, 28 May 2020 05:13:43 +0000Den Howlett22279 at https://diginomica.com